Re: The Official Maine 2009 season thread:The Revenge of TIMMAY!!!
Only time will tell whether this is a turn around year or not. It's nice to see more then one scoring line which why they are doing so well. Scott Darling is the key I think. If he continues to play well and is consistant, then they have great chance to play a lot of hockey in March!
I'm glad Coach Whitehead doesn't read USCHO message boards. But I'm sure he's aware of the morons who post on here and have posted on here, since the first day he started Coaching at Maine. Their will always be a handfull of fans who won't let Shawn Walsh, RIP. You can't bring Shawn back people, and as I've said before he hand picked Tim Whitehead for a reason. I think he knew things weren't going to turn out well for him, but he wanted the program in good hands if he didn't win his fight with cancer. The last two years haven't been very good and Coach Whitehead has said many times it was not exceptable for this program, so he made the necessary changes to make things better. Recruiting appears to be getting better, the hire of Bob Corkum looks to be a brilliant move, and this team appears to be buying into Coach Whitehead's system of defense first. Defense first will always give you a chance to win even against superior opponents.
So let's look at Coach Whitehead's UMaine Coaching resume. Two National Title appearences, Four Frozen 4 appearences and six trips to the NCAA tournament if my count is correct? Not many Coaches get fired with those kinds acheivements on their resumes. UMaine would be the laughing stock of college hockey if they allowed some crazy bandwagon jumping fans, to dictate how to run their very successful college hockey program. Every great program has down years. Minnesota had a down year last year, BC and BU have had them from time to time, and do see some of the mentally challenged fans from BC or BU, getting Coach York or Coach Parker fired when things don't go well? There is still a lot of season left, but if this team stays healthy and continues to play hard they will have a shot to win Hockey East and return to the NCAA tournament.
I didn't even recognize your handle so I had to take a look at your posting history. Talk about apologist. The majority of times you come on here....you write the same stuff....you start reciting the "4 Frozen Fours in 6 years" catch phrases and ironically only show up (or at least post) when you can actually back up your jargon with a 'what have you done for me lately' example. You show up when Maine finally gets above .500 and received poll votes for the first time in over 2 years; before now you haven't contributed since the day after Maine beat BU in game two of the quarterfinals....and before that you hadn't been active in quite some time.
And to humor the jargon....most of the success on his resume was padded from the beginning years playing with Shawns players....which take us through about '06 as the forum deducted. What has he done since? Oh, we went to St. Louis....and I was there....and I remember saying to people "boy, I hope we can do something great this year to keep the program attractive....because we're going to TANK next year"
And the problem with trying to maintain Maine as a strong program compared to others is that other programs you mentioned sell themselves. Even if they have a down year...GREAT players will still want to play for them next year. Massachusetts and Minnesota are easily the two best hockey beds in the U.S. and the top kids in those states dream of playing for BU, BC and Minnesota. Not only does that give them an upper hand in recruiting, but the guys who show up have a lot of investment in the teams success. Meanwhile....Maine is a weak recruiting base to start with, and the two most elite kids we've produced in the last few years both committed to BC. It's really a slap in the face.
Maine has historically been appealing to players for the following reasons:
--GREAT coaching that helps them grow personally, physically, and mentally
--A shot to win almost every season
--One of the most unique environments/venues a semi-pro caliber player can play in front of.
--Great place for passed over Massachusetts (and other hockey states) kids to compete hard against the coaches who overlooked their ability to be successful at this level and stick it to them!
Once Maine stops winning, or once players lose confidence in the coaching....everything else snowballs fast, and its not an easy recovery compared to the 'program sells itself' schools like BU. Maine stops winning then the fans stop showing up which makes the Alfond's mystique dull; the great canadian players who wanted a shot at success in the NCAA start thinking places like UVM or Lowell look more attractive, and the overlooked dark horse/work horse Massachusetts kids no longer feel like Maine is going to be their best shot at sticking it to the Boston schools.
